Hatfield man found guilty of attempted murder of his wife

COURTHOUSE — A Hatfield man was found guilty Monday of trying to kill his wife after an argument by stabbing her several times in their home in March 2013.

Thomas Troy Young, 51, formerly of the 300 block of Wheatfield Circle, was found guilty of all nine charges against him including criminal attempt at murder of the first degree, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, possession of an instrument of crime with intent to use and possession of a weapon.

“I’m very satisfied with the result,” prosecuting attorney Alec O’Neill said after the trial. “The judge took a hard look at the facts of this case. They were not easy, this was a violent crime that involved serious injuries and really, the woman came a hair’s breadth from death.”

Young will be sentenced after a presentencing investigation report is complete. The report will give Judge Carolyn Carluccio a chance to learn more about Young and craft a sentence based on his personal history. The reports often take three or four months to complete. Young has been remanded to Montgomery County Correctional Facility without bail until sentencing.

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“He’s facing many years in state prison. We’re going to look for a sentence that sends that same message — that there was not nearly enough to claim provocation here,” O’Neill said.

In closing arguments, O’Neill and defense attorney Timothy Woodward argued over whether or not a Facebook post that Young saw on his wife’s phone, right before the stabbing, would be provocation enough for Young to lose control and stab his wife in the heat of passion, or if his actions were premeditated.

Woodward argued that Young is an intelligent man, and if he had previously made plans to kill his wife, he would have done it somewhere other than a house full of people.

“If your intent all along is to murder your wife, can’t you pick a better place to do it?” Woodward said.

He continued to argue that the text messages the victim was receiving from her ex-husband and the emails from co-workers and a final Facebook message from an old friend was enough to put Young over the edge and stab his wife in the heat of passion.

The verdict delivered on Monday suggested otherwise, and O’Neill said Carluccio’s verdict shows where the commonwealth draws the line.

“Ultimately the case came down to where we draw our lines,” he said. “What would be a significant provocation to cause somebody to lose control and almost kill another person? I think the judge’s ruling makes it clear that in the case of domestic violence, arguments over infidelity and suspicions of infidelity or small disputes, things like this, and certainly any kind of Facebook message or social media does not get you to the point where you would legally lose control.”

The victim, whose name is being withheld by The Times Herald, testified in court on Monday that after she got home shortly after 9 p.m. on March 9, Young asked her about a message she received on Facebook from someone she went to school with. She told the court that she tried to leave their bedroom when Young grabbed her, and she felt as though he was punching her from behind.

Eventually the assault led into the bathroom of the home where Hatfield Detective Sgt. John Ciarlello would later testify that “there was blood everywhere.” She said that Young threatened to kill her and that he wrapped a piece of clothing around her neck and was trying to strangle her.

She said that she tried to tell her she loved him and to take her to the hospital because at that point she still thought about being with Young and didn’t want him to get in trouble. The victim was later flown to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, where she had to be resuscitated a number of times and underwent four blood transfusions.

Young took the stand in his own defense and said he had been suspicious that his wife had been cheating on him on a number of occasions. He said he has seen inappropriate emails from a few of her co-workers and that her ex-husband had been texting her more than he liked.

On March 9, he said, his wife had gone out to get snacks and while she was away he looked at her phone and saw what he thought was an inappropriate Facebook message. In court Monday, he said he “started boiling up inside” when he saw the message.

When she returned, he said, he asked to talk to her in their bedroom, and the last thing he remembers before seeing her in the bathroom was that she tried leaving the bedroom. Young testified that when he realized how much blood the victim was losing, he wrapped a sweat suit around her neck as a tourniquet to try to stop the bleeding, before taking his daughter to her mother’s house and fleeing to Harrisburg and then New Jersey for five days before turning himself into Hatfield police on March 15, 2013.

When Young surrendered himself to investigators, he said that he threw away his cell phone when he was on the run and that he threw away the blade of the knife he used to stab the victim. Investigators had previously found the knife handle, but determined it had broken off sometime during the stabbing. Young testified the knife had previously been in the bedroom because he used it to open the door when he locked himself out earlier that night.

Woodward asked Young how he felt about what he did.

Crying, Young said that he was devastated.

“I struggle with it every day. I can’t see myself doing something like that. I don’t understand it,” he said.